Word Meanings - BLUESTOCKING - Book Publishers vocabulary database

The American avocet . (more info) 1. A literary lady; a female pedant. Note: As explained in Boswell's "Life of Dr. Johnson", this term is derived from the name given to certain meetings held by ladies, in Johnson's time, for conversation with

Additional info about word: BLUESTOCKING

The American avocet . (more info) 1. A literary lady; a female pedant. Note: As explained in Boswell's "Life of Dr. Johnson", this term is derived from the name given to certain meetings held by ladies, in Johnson's time, for conversation with distinguished literary men. An eminent attendant of these assemblies was a Mr. Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings. He was so much distinguished for his conversational powers that his absence at any time was felt to be a great loss, so that the remark became common, "We can do nothing without the blue stockings." Hence these meetings were sportively called bluestocking clubs, and the ladies who attended them, bluestockings.

Related words: (words related to BLUESTOCKING)

• FEMALE
  A plant which produces only that kind of reproductive organs which are capable of developing into fruit after impregnation or fertilization; a pistillate plant. (more info) 1. An individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young, or
• DERIVE
  To flow; to have origin; to descend; to proceed; to be deduced. Shak. Power from heaven Derives, and monarchs rule by gods appointed. Prior.
• AMERICANIZATION
  The process of Americanizing.
• PEDANTY
  An assembly or clique of pedants. Milton.
• EXPLAIN
  out+plandare to make level or plain, planus plain: cf. OF. esplaner, 1. To flatten; to spread out; to unfold; to expand. The horse-chestnut is . . . ready to explain its leaf. Evelyn. 2. To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear
• AMERICAN
  1. Of or pertaining to America; as, the American continent: American Indians. 2. Of or pertaining to the United States. "A young officer of the American navy." Lyell. American ivy. See Virginia creeper. -- American Party , a party, about 1854,
• AMERICANISM
  1. Attachment to the United States. 2. A custom peculiar to the United States or to America; an American characteristic or idea. 3. A word or phrase peculiar to the United States.
• JOHNSONIANISM
  A manner of acting or of writing peculiar to, or characteristic of, Dr. Johnson.
• JOHNSONESE
  The literary style of Dr. Samuel Johnson, or one formed in imitation of it; an inflated, stilted, or pompous style, affecting classical words. E. Everett.
• AMERICAN PLAN
  In hotels, aplan upon which guests pay for both room and board by the day, week, or other convenient period; -- contrasted with European plan.
• CERTAINTY
  Clearness; freedom from ambiguity; lucidity. Of a certainty, certainly. (more info) 1. The quality, state, or condition, of being certain. The certainty of punishment is the truest security against crimes. Fisher Ames. 2. A fact or truth
• DERIVATIONAL
  Relating to derivation. Earle.
• BOSWELLISM
  The style of Boswell.
• DERIVATIVE
  Obtained by derivation; derived; not radical, original, or fundamental; originating, deduced, or formed from something else; secondary; as, a derivative conveyance; a derivative word. Derivative circulation, a modification of the circulation found
• DERIVATION
  The operation of deducing one function from another according to some fixed law, called the law of derivation, as the of differentiation or of integration. (more info) 1. A leading or drawing off of water from a stream or source. T. Burnet. 2.
• DERIVEMENT
  That which is derived; deduction; inference. I offer these derivements from these subjects. W. Montagu.
• FEMALE FERN
  a common species of fern with large decompound fronds , growing in many countries; lady fern. Note: The names male fern and female fern were anciently given to two common ferns; but it is now understood that neither has any sexual character. Syn.
• JOHNSON GRASS
  A tall perennial grass , valuable in the Southern and Western States for pasture and hay. The rootstocks are large and juicy and are eagerly sought by swine. Called also Cuba grass, Means grass, Evergreen millet, and Arabian millet.
• CERTAINNESS
  Certainty.
• AMERICANIZE
  To render American; to assimilate to the Americans in customs, ideas, etc.; to stamp with American characteristics.
• LADY'S TRACES; LADIES' TRESSES; LADIES TRESSES
  A name given to several species of the orchidaceous genus Spiranthes, in which the white flowers are set in spirals about a slender axis and remotely resemble braided hair.
• ASCERTAINMENT
  The act of ascertaining; a reducing to certainty; a finding out by investigation; discovery. The positive ascertainment of its limits. Burke.
• ASCERTAINABLE
  That may be ascertained. -- As`cer*tain"a*ble*ness, n. -- As`cer*tain"a*bly, adv.
• UNCERTAINTY
  1. The quality or state of being uncertain. 2. That which is uncertain; something unknown. Our shepherd's case is every man's case that quits a moral certainty for an uncertainty. L'Estrange.
• MISDERIVE
  1. To turn or divert improperly; to misdirect. Bp. Hall. 2. To derive erroneously.
• UNCERTAINLY
  In an uncertain manner.
• ANTI-AMERICAN
  Opposed to the Americans, their aims, or interests, or to the genius of American institutions. Marshall.